A Thomas Jefferson Education

After hearing about it for the second time, I decided to read A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century by Oliver Van DeMille. I don't feel like summarizing, but I'll just say that I agree with several of his ideas-- especially that children need to learn "how" to think and that classics and mentors (good teachers) need to be an important part of a child's (and adult's education). I feel inspired to again work through a lot of the "classics" sitting on our bookshelf and to encourage and help my kids to do so too. I don't feel inspired to follow DeMille's ideas to a tee (or assume that all his "phases of learning" or "seven keys of great teaching" are gospel). There's also a bit of a haughty, over-idealistic tone in the book that I didn't like. Overall though, this was a wonderful book with opinions on education that really opened my mind.